Off to Philly!

This past weekend was tournament #2.  It was just outside of Philadelphia in a similar spot to last year's final tournament, which Jacob's team won.  Unfortunately, because this one fell during school, we couldn't do any of the fun add-ons we did last year, like downtown Philly, Hershey, or Gettysburg.  It was basically down and back, and that was reinforced when we got our schedule, which was firmly concentrated in the afternoons.  It was a nice change of pace from the 5am wakeup/7am arrival time we had last weekend (and at most tournaments), but it made it nearly impossible to do anything else of significance.  We couldn't even find an evening baseball game because our last game on Saturday didn't end until nearly 7pm!  But, on the bright side, at least this week we all got to go together.

I took a half day of work on Friday and packed like a maniac until Craig got home with the kids, and we were packed up and on the road by 4pm.  It was nice to be back in the van with multi-zone climate control, plenty of packing space, and the DVD player.  Carter took no time to get back in his happy place!

The drive was pretty much par for the course - too many stops, a handful of arguments, but some pleasant scenery along the way.

From my new phone...

...and my trusty old camera...somewhere in the middle of PA.

We had a harrowing game of travel bingo, listened to some silly music, and talked, while mostly Carter watched a couple movies.

It was a late night getting in to our hotel, around 10:30, I think.  But since we didn't have to be up early, it was fine.  We actually slept until nearly 9am, at which point I rounded everyone up to get ready before breakfast shut down at 10.  God forbid we miss the main reason I booked that hotel--Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls!

Since we had a couple hours to kill and the kids are brutal in hotel rooms, we headed out to our best option--IKEA!  I did a little shopping for a couple things I had my eye on, and the boys enjoyed playing with the many stuffed animals and exploring the many room setups.  After that we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch (and hey, no half-hour wait!) before heading back to the hotel to get ready to go to the tournament.

It was a really beautiful day, warm and sunny but pleasant.  Our team tent was right by a hill and Carter was having a blast rolling down it!

Jacob's team did well on day one, winning all three games.  One was close before they pulled away, another was pretty much a blowout, and the other was pretty tight throughout.  But the team looked pretty good.  Jacob played a decent amount, but there were still signs that we were going to see more of what frustrated us last weekend.

We did have a nice time at the tent with the other families, though, and it was a nice view from up on the hill.

The team did its huddle nearby (usually they go off to a quiet shady corner between games), and it was nice to see them all together, talking and sharing and listening to the Bible.

Closing prayer - Jacob is next to the orange jersey on the left, in the foreground.

Saturday night we ended up at a pizza parlor with some other team families.  I think we were all pretty spent by then, so as soon as we ate, we were ready to go.  The boys fell asleep pretty easily that night, and lights were out around 10pm for all of us.

Sunday was going to be a hot one.  We had a lazy morning at the hotel with another wonderful breakfast, and we headed to the fields by 11.  It was pretty brutal as soon as we got there, and just the walk to the tents with all of our stuff was enough to get a pretty good sweat on!

As we waited for game #1, Jacob's teammate's brother offered to play lacrosse with Carter.  Carter borrowed some gloves and a stick, and he had a blast shooting on him.  When he took a turn on defense, Carter was pretty intense!

I'm glad some other big brothers pick up the slack where Carter's own big brother lacks!  Over the course of the weekend Carter also befriended one of Jacob's teammates and almost made friends with a sibling closer to his age...at least until the kid used a lacrosse stick to tag Carter and tore up his finger a bit!

Jacob's team faced a really tough battle in the semi-finals.  It was 90 degrees outside, and again Jacob wasn't playing, meaning that other teammates were playing the whole game in the heat.  They suddenly found themselves down 5-1, including one goal that their goalie scored on himself. There was also a goal they seemed to score, but the ref said it hit the post.  Everyone (including some fans from the other team) insisted it went in, but no dice.  All hope seemed lost, but suddenly they got their act together and roared back to take the lead!  It was so exciting and awesome to see them work together like that.  They ended up winning 7-6, but the win was a bit tainted because in the last couple minutes, one of their good players got hit, and when he stood up we could see he was struggling.  At one point he made a really errant pass, and then he had his hands on his head and subsequently doubled over, only to puke right on the field.  Obviously he was suffering from heat exhaustion, so they took him right off to the medical tent.

As worried as we were, we were hopeful that Jacob would see some playing time in the championship since that player plays the same position as Jacob, but of course he made a miraculous recovery over the 40 minute break.  We definitely question the wisdom in letting him play (even if it didn't impact Jacob), because it was still very hot and he played almost the whole game again.  If it was my kid I might have let him play a few shifts to feel like he contributed, but not the whole game!  That stuff is not something to mess with, so I'm concerned that no one stopped him from playing that much again.
 
Anyway, the championship was against the team they got their first win against, but this time it was much harder.  It was a battle the whole game.  Jacob only played once so it was hard to watch as the team struggled and was clearly getting tired.  The officiating was rough and both sides had their dirty moments, probably because they were worn out.  The score was back and forth the whole game, and Jacob's team took the lead with a couple minutes left.  Unfortunately, the other team tied it shortly thereafter, and the game went to overtime.  It didn't take long for the other team to win the faceoff, miss on one shot, then grab a loose ball and score the winner.  We were crushed  It was such a tough way to end the weekend, and we knew we had a long drive ahead.

We were on the road by 5pm, but once again, the bathroom stops killed us.  I drove for the last four hours or so, I think, which helped the trip go faster for me.  We talked way too much about Jacob not playing, though, which was frustrating.  We got home around 11:30, and poured the kids into bed.  Of course, I was still obsessing over Jacob, so after I did some unpacking and some social media catch-up (it was Father's Day, after all), my brain took another 45 minutes to shut off.  You can imagine how fun Monday was.

But now we're off and running on a new week, and tomorrow is a VERY big day!  Stay tuned :)